Faroe Islands to sequence the genome of entire population

The Faroe Islands -- a self-governing territory within the
Kingdom of Denmark -- wants to become the first nation to offer full human genome sequencing to each of its 50,000
citizens.

The project -- called FarGen -- was announced at the Personal
Genomes conference last week. A 100-person pilot will be
completed first in order to get a better understanding of the
technical, ethical, social and legal challenges of the project. The
pilot will only use adults, who will not receive their results
because, according to programme director Bogi Eliasen, "we don't
feel ready for that".

There is a high prevalence of genetic disease -- such as metabolic disorder CTD -- in the Faroe Islands, due to the
small, homogenous population, and as such there is a good
understanding of genetic tests within the population. CTD is
treatable, but can cause heart failure in children.

The project will cost around 257 million Danish kroner
(£29,850,000) and will involve researchers from the University of
Oxford and Baylor University. The aim is to link the genome data to
the participants' health records. Doctors who suspect that their
patients have a particular condition will be able to send a query
to the Ministry of Health for information relating to their genome
sequence -- as opposed to giving the physicians information
relating to their patients' propensities to contract a particular
disease or condition.

Individuals would also have the right to access their own
sequence data and have it interpreted privately should they so
wish. The population will also be educated in genomics and
genetics at school to ensure that everyone is informed enough to
consent to the tests.

If the project goes well, the Faroe Islands could provide a
model for integrating whole genome sequencing into the healthcare
systems of other countries.